Reader John and his friend Michelle found themselves in a situation where they needed to get “Plan B” birth control, also known as “the morning after pill.” They went to their local CVS in Hawthorne, CA. and met an uncooperative pharmacist who refused them access to the pills because Michelle only had foreign ID to prove she is of legal age. (18+) The pharmacist also refused John’s state issued ID with the reason that it could not be sold to man, however, the FDA’s website clearly says that Plan B can be sold OTC to a man or woman who is 18 or over. Find out what happened to John and Michelle, inside….
Ok, so we had an “accident” with our condom. We decided before it was too late to purchase the famous PlanB at a local CVS pharmacy. When we got there the pharmacist requested a “state issued I.D.”. My friend is visiting so she does not have a state-issued I.D. so she showed her Colombian citizenship ID that clearly shows her date of birth as well as her picture and signature. The pharmacist did not even look at it and rejected it because it was not a US-issued I.D.
So I told her, “What if someone is here illegally and is raped? Would that mean they don’t have the right to buy Plan B?” She kept saying “It’s the law.” I got really mad and told her that was absurd. Then I told her that I had a state-issued I.D. and she said that it could only be purchased by the person who is going to take it, which basically means it can only be sold to women.
So we went back home and I searched online for information about purchasing Plan B, and I found on the FDA’s website that as long as you are over 18, you can buy it, no matter if you are a male or a female.
I printed this information and headed back to the pharmacy. I confronted the pharmacist and told her that the law protects me as a consumer and that I had the right to buy the pill. She did not even look at the information I had printed and kept saying “It’s the law.”
We ended up buying it from another CVS pharmacy in the area. The pharmacist there was very polite. At the beginning she did not know that the law allows ANYONE over 18 to purchase it but she did not have a problem verifying her age with a foreign-issued ID.
Please publish this story. People need to know their rights. Thank you Consumerist!
We sympathize with you both. It sounds like this CVS pharmacist put you through a lot of trouble for no good reason because according to the FDA’s website, a man or woman can purchase Plan B if they are 18 or older and does not mention the exclusion of foreign identification. From the FDA’s website:
7a. How can I purchase over-the-counter Plan B?
In order to purchase Plan B over-the-counter, personal identification showing proof of age (18) is required. Plan B will be available behind the counter at the pharmacy in order to manage both prescription (17 years and under) and OTC (18 years and over) dispensing. This means Plan B will not be sold at gas stations or convenience stores, where other OTC products are routinely available.
7b. Can men purchase Plan B? (added 12/14/2006)
Yes. Plan B OTC is approved to allow OTC availability of Plan B for consumers 18 years and older. Plan B remains available by prescription only for women 17 years and younger.
We’re happy to hear that the second CVS store accepted the foreign ID, even though neither store was aware that it could be legally purchased by a man of legal age. You should talk to the head pharmacists at both stores and inform them of the FDA’s rules regarding Plan B. Also contact the store managers and let them know that the pharmacy is not operating within the FDA’s guidelines. If that doesn’t help then keep moving up the chain of command until the problem is acknowledged and corrected. You could also file a complaint with the California State Board of Pharmacy. It might sound like a lot of trouble but doing so will help ensure that others won’t have to endure similar headaches.
(Photo: Getty)
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@CecilMcCecil: Actually, my belief in FSM explicitly states that I can’t push my beliefs on others…
As a general rule, you will have no joy with a store manager. A pharmacy within a drug store or grocery store is under the jurisdiction of a regional pharmacy manager who is in charge of a half dozen pharmacies, but not the stores they are in.
I’ve had to call a regional manager once, and, because they can’t be at all their stores all the time, they are usually VERY grateful for any information like this. In this case, the pharmacist not only gave CVS bad PR, this guy had been costing them SALES. Don’t even bother with an official complaint – this guy will be history if you call the regional manager.
@chemicalx9:
“we have the right to refuse anything to anyone at anytime”
If they can’t do the job, i.e. dispense products that are legal and that the store carries as a matter of normal business, then they should find another line of work. What give them the right to pass that kind of judgment?
Suppose a doctor is someone who thinks old people don’t deserve medical care; do they “have the right to refuse anything to anyone at anytime”? Or a pharmacist who thinks penicillin is the work of the devil and won’t prescribe it?
There is plenty of room in the world for kooks. Just not in the area of medicine and pharmacology.
@Landru: Doctors have the right to refuse treatment, care, and medical advice to anyone. They also have the right to get thrown out on their asses and get their license stripped. You see, people don’t just get rights taken away from them because they’ve entered a profession, they get them abridged when they so agree by taking employment. If I had a private practice, I would refuse anyone who believed that I have to work for them, and that would be my right … and yours too if you were a doctor.
The CVS pharmacy–what we’re supposed to be talking about–has rights too. It’s up to whoever is responsible for the pharmacy to determine who gets what and why, and how to reprimand employees who devalue the business. To us, we benefit if they let anyone buy anything. We also benefit if they let us walk around in the back and take whatever we want for free. Get it? You have rights, they have rights, respect that boundary and just buy from somewhere else.
Hmm. I live in Hawthorne. I suppose I could see that happening here. You meet some interesting characters here. Depending on which Hawthorne CVS they’re referring to, it may not exactly be in the best of areas. Some parts of Hawthorne are considerably less nice than others.
For those not in the Know, Hawthorne is just south-east of LAX, and about 13-ish miles southwest of Downtown LA. There are definitely worse parts of LA to find yourself in.
@chrisjames: Are you serious? Did you had a look at the FDA website? “On August 24, 2006, the FDA approved nonprescription behind-the-counter access to Plan B from pharmacies staffed by a licensed pharmacist for women 18 or older; a prescription-only form of Plan B will remain available for young women aged 17 and younger” Anyone has the right to buy it from the pharmacy. Please tell us who told you that the pharmacies have the right not to sell it.
@MBPharmD: If a pharmacist thinks plan B is abortion, then s/he’s a stupid fuck who didn’t go to school and should be fired for incompetence.
Plan B is birth control. Do research before you shoot your mouth off.
When I was living in London I had to go get emergency contraception, and they also have a law that you have to be over 16. But the pharmacist just asked me if I was old enough rather than checking ID, which I think was maybe because I look really young even though I was 20 at the time. I always appreciated that action on her part…age-restrictions and IDing on this stuff are bullshit, generally. Of course I had to pay the equivalent of $50 for it, but it would have been FREE!!! if I had bothered to make a doctors appointment (but I didn’t feel that I had the time, given the situation).
Honestly, I found just having to deal with all of that crap so stressful and obnoxious that I can just imagine having a pharmacist give you extra shit over it is absolutely the last thing you want to have happen.
What a bunch of friggin hypocrites. Let’s be honest people what this is about, it’s about ending the life of an unborn child. It would similar to saying maybe some of the “posters” here could be aborted b/c they haven’t reached a certain level of development or not recognized by certain individuals as having attained life. Violence to the unborn or born is not an acceptable solution for life. The tone here is that children are a bad thing, like a cancer that needs to be treated.
As for the separation of the church and state, heck this was intended to do the opposite of what people quote it for. It was to prevent the state from meddling in the affairs of the church NOT vice versa. Please you separation people read it and understand it.
If you are so worried about having kids, show some restraint and NOT have sex. Having sex is a big adult decision, but most posts here treat it like it’s nothing more than picking which restaurant you want to eat at or what you want to wear. But most people here don’t want told they can’t do something or they shouldn’t spend money they don’t have or be responsible for the decisions they make no matter who they effect.
@Landru:
Hey dont get me wrong…I am all for not having an unplanned pregnancy. I frequently dispense Plan B, and shake my head at the very small minority of pharmacists that have a problem with dispensing it.
However, you cant have it both ways. The general public wants us to be shopkeepers simply selling a product but also expects us to protect them and have a professional / expert opinion on their meds.
Lets say I refuse to sell a rx because the dose is wrong, and potentially fatal, but the doctor in their wisdom ignores me on it am I wrong to refuse? The rx is legitamate but may cause potential harm.
I am all for removing the liability I have…that would be fantastic save me malpractice insurance and a hell of a lot of stress.
Its a slippery slope if we start forcing pharmacists to fill one thing and do not remove the legal liability…whats to say I wont be legally required to fill a toxic dose of a rx and then be sued because I filled it?
@amoeba:
who said we had to? just because 7-11 can carry cigarettes doesnt mean they have to sell them.
@coolkiwilivin:
You do realise that a majority of people who use birth control have children, don’t you? It’s a matter of controling the size of ones family, not eliminating family altogether.
Plan B is not an abortion, it’s pregnancy preventer. It doesn’t kill an unborn child, it simple prevents the pregnancy from happening in the first place.
As for other people sex lives .. uh, mind your own business. Perhaps if you had an active, fulfilling sex life, you wouldn’t be so concerned about what others are doing in the bedroom.
@chemicalx9: It is a law and mandatory to sell Plan B to anyone who needs it, and it is on the FDA website and it is approved. So, if I want to buy cigarettes and I get denied, then I have the right to report them. You cannot put two things different as the same. But, the CVS pharmacy cannot deny an emergency contraceptive pill (which is not an abortive pill, as many puritans and moralist say on this forum)if it is a OTC medication and it is open to the people. So, why you make a big deal about something you won’t use. I have.
@chemicalx9: I wonder if you are the hypocrite. You and the other people should take some Oral contraceptive Pill Class or get informed at your local health care.
@radleyas: The second you implied anything about anybody else’s sex life, your post lost its entire credibility.
I don’t care what levels others stoop to- does that make it ok for you to act in such an immature manner over internet comments? Are you that bothered by internet comments? Somebody like yourself might state that “if you had an active, fulfilling life, you wouldn’t be so concerned what other people are saying on the internet.”
@coolkiwilivin:
…or be responsible for the decisions they make no matter who they effect.
Using contraception is exercising responsibility. By your logic, having children is a punishment for having sex. Then again, when it comes to fundamentalist authoritarians logic doesn’t really figure into things for them anyway.
@coolkiwilivin: If a pre-implantation embryo (ie, a fertilized egg before the woman is even pregnant) is an “unborn child”, then your god is the biggest abortionist out there. Because some estimates show that 60-80% of embryos fail to ever implant and are naturally flushed out of the human body.
The woman is not pregnant until implantation. Period. And Plan B mainly works by preventing ovulation and thickening cervical mucus, thus preventing sperm from reaching egg in the first place. Maybe you’re confused and thinking of RU-486, which is a true abortion drug? Plan B is just a hormonal contraceptive like any other birth control pill (except it’s high dose).
If you’re opposed to all contraception, then I don’t even know how to argue with you. But you might find that a lonely position to hold.
@amoeba: Huh?! “The FDA approved…”, “will remain available…” Please, I’m thinking I’m not speaking the same language. Where does it say, implicitly or explicitly, that pharmacists have an obligation to sell Plan B?
You have a right to buy Plan B, which means ONLY that the government will not step in and say you can’t. The pharmacist has a right to sell Plan B, which means ONLY that the government will not step in and say they can’t. Of course, that’s not entirely true because the government is restricting the age at which you can buy and the pharmacy can sell without a prescription, and technically you are being granted a right (a contradiction), but that’s the way it is. The pharmacy has a right to do business as it sees fit within the confines of the law, which does not state that they are obligated to sell Plan B, or anything at all if they so choose. That would be a crappy way to run a business, but it would be their choice, as it would be yours if you were in their shoes.
Do you think the CVS pharmacy is a public institution? Do you think all businesses bend and sway to the will of the consumer; to you, who, like them, only want to make a buck? What naivete. Hug your property close while you can because that attitude is just begging to have it ripped away and fed to the “greater good.”
@MBPharmD:
@apotheosis:
One word answer? Yes.
Don’t like the law or refuse to follow it, find another job.
So long as one is in a job that has specific legal requirements, those requirements need to be met. If your beliefs prevent you from following the law, find another job.
No excuses. None.
TOm
@coolkiwilivin: I assume you don’t partake much in “the sex?”
Ah US businesses and foreign ID’s, always entertaining.
Yes US business owners you guys sometimes do have visitor’s from other countries coming over that may need medical care! (or just want to buy alcohol or cigarettes).
Guess what, tourists/visitors can’t just go to some government agency and get a US ID, see we are visitors, not residents.
I visit the US a lot, I have a lot of friends there and it really is unbelievable how many times my passport is denied and I have to find another store to buy cigarettes or go to another bar to have some drinks.
I honestly hope I never need plan B on one of my visits, because it must have been horrible for this couple to be scared to get pregnant and not getting the care they needed.
everyone should just take a leaf out of a nurses book. don’t ass around with finding plan b, just take 2 of your normal birth control pills and an antiemetic. (note efficacy is highest with the dual hormone or ‘full’ birth control pill)
ADA > ACLU in the case of guide dogs v. Islamic drivers. The ADA will trump every time.
Like the ACLU would take the side against handicapped people. Please.
Conservatives – hating Constitution-sanctioned civil rights – would wish it were so. That doesn’t make it true.
@MBPharmD: I presume that you would feel the same way if the pimple-faced kid at Subway refused to make your Spicy Italian sub and instead gave you a loaded veggie sandwich with no cheese because HIS moral stance regarding meat and animal products makes it ‘okay’ for him to not do his job.
IMO, the Subway kid owes you a meat-filled sub. And the CVS pharmacist owes that Colombian lady an apology.
@chrisjames: I guess that you and the “others” who “protect” CVS must be working in there or are affiliated to it. I had purchased the Plan B without questions asked or even being looked as a “whore” (I am talking that I live in Utah). So I guess you are the Naive (it is not “naivete”). I will ask my attorney about this issue. And living in a “free country” seem that freedom is taken away from capitalism.
I’m also a pharmacist and would like to issue my opinion. Most state laws do allow pharmacists to make decisions about who will get medication. The pharmacist might notice that the MD prescribed the wrong medication for your condition, or the wrong dose, or that it might kill you because of a supplement you are taking or of a disease you have. What if you have an addiction? We will not (and can not) give you the medication.
In addition pharmacists can refuse to give a medication for moral reasons. And this is where is can be a little tricky for those of you with no medical knowledge. Yes, plan B is a higher dose of birth control. But, plan B can work in one of several ways… 1. It can prevent an egg from being released from the ovary or 2. It can prevent the implantation of an already fertilized egg into the uterine wall. It is this second way that it works that is the spark of all controversy… do you believe that sperm + egg = life? Or do you believe that the fertilized egg must be implanted into the uterine wall before you call it life? The difference is millimeters. Physicians who advocate the use of plan B argue that the sperm + egg must be implanted before they call it life. Other physicians, scientists, pharmacists, etc disagree and think that when the egg is fertilized it is then considered a life.
Argue this one out all that you like.
Finally, I hate to say this, but pharmacists are also doctors. When people address me they put doctor in front of my name. My degree has doctor on it. Just because pharmacists don’t prescribe medicines in all 50 states does not mean that their training and insight is less rigorous or that their professionalism or knowledge base is less or of lower quality. Those of you that make comments emphasizing that the pharmacist is not the DOCTOR and isn’t a DOCTOR just look silly.
@coolkiwilivin:
“Let’s be honest people what this is about, it’s about ending the life of an unborn child.”
Thank you for presenting your opinion on this matter, which I do not share.
Somehow, I doubt you would be as interested in hearing my take on this “unborn child” matter.
Regardless, have a nice day.
Wow.. yet ANOTHER example of someone with no interest in the world around them spouting off some random crap they heard or made up and claiming it is the LAW in order to not only violate the law but to impose their deranged views upon someone else’s so-called rights.
I know I’m shocked..
It’s amazing how many violations of a consumer’s rights can be chalked up to “YOUR PAPERS PLEASE SIR!” (or ma’am in this case)
@chrisjames:
Then don’t carry it..
Where was your argument again?
@amoeba: You misunderstand what capitalism is. It’s about not taking away freedoms (specifically property, but the two are linked). Your freedom to buy something is the same as a business’s freedom to sell it, to sell their property to you. Taking away the rights, the freedom, of one person is taking away the rights of everyone, including yourself.
If you find any business practice to be unfair or unsavory, then just walk away and go somewhere else. They may be forcing their opinions and beliefs on you, but by trying to force their hands to meet your expectations, you are doing the same thing to them. Neither party is respecting the transaction, the sole judgement on the worth of the business and your worth as a consumer. Don’t forget the saying here: vote with your dollar.
@chrisjames:
“You misunderstand what capitalism is. It’s about not taking away freedoms (specifically property, but the two are linked). Your freedom to buy something is the same as a business’s freedom to sell it, to sell their property to you.”
(eyes roll)
Clearly, you misunderstand it as well. In the case that started this thread, it was not the business that refused to sell a product; rather, it was a specific employee of that business who did so. And it is entirely possible that said employee may have been acting against the wishes and interests of his employer in so doing.
You have erroneously conflated the wayward employee with the business in this case, leading to the unwarranted conclusion that the business refused to sell the product — a conclusion that is thoroughly discredited by subsequent events.
High-sounding comments like “(t)aking away the rights, the freedom, of one person is taking away the rights of everyone, including yourself” may sound pretty, but they have absolutely no bearing on or applicability to the situation under discussion in this thread.
@BigElectricCat: You’re right. They do have bearing on the comments I was responding to, which relate ideas quite a bit more threatening than the fact of one employee possibly acting against the wishes of their employer.
As long as a state license has to be issued to sell something, the state gets to decide how that sale takes place.
If a pharmacist insists on the right to not sell drugs he despises, then I insist that pharmacies all become deregulated … and the government allow anyone to buy any non-narcotic from anyone. Period.
@kbarrett: The state gets to restrict how the sale takes place, not that it must take place.
I am a pharmacist and I am frustrated in a way that I cannot get my pharmacy manager to dispense plan b to a male. He insists that he will not dispense until the girl actually walks in and shows her ID, his reasoning being that since the girl is going to be taking it, checking her ID means he made sure that an underage female does not receive the plan b….whereas dispensing to a guy means more changes of him giving to an underage girl. No way of proving that the receiver of plan b is not underage if he dispenses it to a male. I have tried reasoning with him several scenarios where the girl might not be wanting to go in person to get plan b, but to no avail. He actually tries to show that I am doing something wrong and my judgement is wrong by dispensing plan b to males above 18 years. I would like to hear some comments from all of you. thanks
What if a male pharmacist denies sale to males above 18 years because he is not sure whether the person consuming it is above 18 years of age?. I am a pharmacist and my collegues will not dispense to males above 18 unless the girl is also present and shows her proof of id. What I am worried about is some girl who is unable for whatever reason, be it embarrasment or unability to walk, gets denied. I have tried to reason with them, but their reasoning is that they are following the law by making sure OTC plan b is not dispensed to females under 18. Any comments????
Why would they waste time going back to the first pharmacist? I would have taken a good look at the nametag, gone straight to another pharmacy, and called the manager of the store that night.
To clarify, I’m not playing “Blame the OP,” I’m just saying this for anyone who encounters this situation: If you face a difficult clerk, he or she isn’t going to get any better, and it’s not worth the time. Go to someone who will do it without the hassle, and get that first clerk in trouble with the manager. If the manager fails to do anything, send it up the ladder.